I don't want to beat a dead horse but wouldn't it make sense to split the world titles up for Brock Lesnar to win one at SummerSlam? We all know Lesnar won't be around to defend it. This way he'll still look like a beast and WWE will still be able to defend the other title at pay-per-views.

For anyone that doesn't know, I was against unifying the WWE and World Heavyweight title belts because I felt it diminished the company's main event scene. Two world titles literally forced the company to have two main events at every pay-per-view and provided opportunities for talent that would otherwise be relegated to the mid-card. We're 6 months in and that's exactly what has happened with the very unfortunate injury to Daniel Bryan proving just how vital it was to have two champions. However, now I will contradict myself. Now that WWE has pushed their World Heavyweight Champion as the "champion of champions" and "face of the company," they have no choice but to push one champion. Turning back now and splitting the belts would hurt any prestige they've restored and make the win mean less. That's not to say they can't de-unify the belts later on but it's too soon after going forward with title unification at the end of last year.

Does WWE talent have to pay their own travel expenses?

Yes, WWE workers under Performer's contracts have to pay for their own travel expenses such as flights, rental cars and hotels. This is why a lot of guys travel together to split these expenses. It's also why some guys -- like John Cena -- travel in tour buses. Things work a bit differently for international tours, however, that's how it works domestically.

What's the situation with Corey Graves? Is it injury or personal leave and do you know when he's coming back?

Corey Graves has been sidelined recently due to a concussion. The injury bug hasn't been good to him (it's never good to anyone) as he was nearing a main roster call-up. Graves has been part of another debate that I've brought to the forefront on my Facebook page. If you're interested, read what I wrote and read his Tweets. I won't bring a sidebar argument to the website.

If TNA were to go under, is there any talent that WWE would be interested in?

This is a rhetorical question. Of course there are workers WWE would be interested in if TNA were to go out of business. There are currently people that work in TNA that WWE already has interest in. WWE scouts talent from all promotions all across the world, why wouldn't they be interested?

From the Ask WNW vault…

April 2012: You’ve mentioned before that Vince McMahon was against part-time workers, if you worked for him you were full time. With Brock Lesnar breaking that mold, does this open the door for a Bill Goldberg, Sting, Kurt Angle (retirement run), part time program leading up to Wrestlemania? - Vince McMahon has always wanted workers to be full-time with the company and is hesitant to give pushes to part-timers. There have been exceptions with Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker and of course Triple H but by large the rule has been all or nothing. The Rock recently broke the mold by agreeing to work Wrestlemania XXVIII one year in advance and working sporadic appearances on TV as well as a main event match at Survivor Series. Vince broke all his rules for Brock Lesnar and offered him big money for a limited schedule because he was determined that Lesnar’s first post-UFC appearance would be in a WWE ring. I don’t know this for sure but it seems like Vince took a lot of credit for Brock drawing big for UFC and wanted to make sure he got to capitalize on Lesnar’s fame for himself. As for this opening the door for other part-timers, the mold of “all or nothing” seems to be changing, especially given the success of Wrestlemania XXVIII. Kurt Angle and Sting are currently under TNA contract and I haven’t heard of recent interest in Goldberg, however, WWE is interested in Batista.

Questions that are legible stand the best chance of getting answered. The next installment of Ask WNW is scheduled to run on Monday, June 30, 2014.

You can submit a question for the next installment of Ask WNW at this link. If you have problems with the form, you can send your question to [email protected].

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Richard Gray is the owner and editor of WrestlingNewsWorld.com. Covering the professional wrestling business since 1999, Richard holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from West Virginia University. He is also the owner of Gray Internet Technologies, LLC. and should be contacted with all business matters. You can friend him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter. Email him directly at [email protected].

kavon

Disagree wwe 1st unified the titles on 2001 where jericho became 1st undisputed champion. Then they split the titles in 2002 and it did not hurt the prestige at all in fact it became more interesting.

People send questions, I post responses. That’s just how this installment works. Sometimes questions overlap, sometimes we talk about things more than others, etc. I simply pick 4 questions and answer them.

dean

the only way wwe can put a world title on lesnar is if wwe has another world champion at the same time who can appear on houseshows because lesnar has made it clear that he will ONLY be a part time performer.

Isaac Perez

How did tye spilt occurred sorry I didnt start watching till 2005??

Judas

The storyline was that Vince and Flair were the co-owners of WWE, and were in a heated feud so the board of directors opted to make two shows: flair owned raw and Vince owned smackdown. The real reason was because of the talent roster at the time.

kavon

Well at first ric flair gave hhh a single undisputed title after having 2 belts then brock won wwe title and went to sd for brand split and then eric bischoff gave hhh the world title

Who do you have now? Cena, Orton, Bryan? The rest like Sheamus and Del Rio? they’re just getting pushed back down to the secondary titles. Then you have guys like Batista and Lesnar that just come and go, also you have the future title holders, Reigns, Cesaro, Big E, Rollins, Ambrose? and finally you can’t forget about guys like Ziggler who they just won’t push, just seems to be the same people,

Splitting into 2 at this point would be a mistake.

dean

the titles are just “props”. pro wrestling is entertainment.. the “titles” are given to the talent for storyline purposes. only titles in REAL SPORTS have prestige because the participants are actually competing for them.
would the world cup trophy have any prestige if the governing body just assigned it to the brazil team at the beginning of the tournament and all of the other teams knew the end result at the beginning of the tournament?
McMahon can split the titles any time he feels like it because he runs wwe and controls all of the storylines.

Luke

Wow, the belts aren’t really given to the best fighter in the company. Thanks Dean, you’ve enlightened us all

Terra Ryzing

Don’t you think we all know that? Sheesh

Mysterion

I think roughly every professional wrestler would want to snap your neck for saying there’s no prestige in what they spend there lives trying to achieve.

JR Texx (Jamie)

they may just be “props” but they still have meaning within the business….

Venom

Let’s be honest with ourselves. The World Title was never treated like a main event title. Over the past few years it was the opening match on ppvs and wrestlemania. It only started to be closer to main event when John Cena beat Del Rio after returning from injury last October and they only did that so Orton and Cena can do the unification match.

Not saying I don’t want 2 belts. I was against unification also. I just wish it went back to brand split and be treated like 2 separate companies within. I miss those days as I watched every show including ECW. Now smackdown is a missable show since everyone is on RAW. I knew once RAW became a “supershow” they were going to abandon everything.

I agree but it still forced the two-title match PPVs. It still meant more than the secondary belts do currently.

Scott Davies

But wait. The IC Title has been strong since Bad News Barrett won the title. A unified title forces WWE to push its secondary titles. Sheamus is in the mainevent on MITB as the reigning US Championship. Plus title matches have become more frequent. That other years. One Championship also forces Superstars to make themselves mainevent worthy. Look at The Shield. Hottest act in a long time. Broke up & everybody is raving about their work. Roman Reigns is a feud or 2 away from becoming champion. (I think Wrestlemania next year)

Guest

I agreed with your view on the titles not being unified…and not be re-unified yet…next TLC is a good time to split it again, heading into WM31. But I and most people(like the guy above) never liked the brand together thing. It should go back to the way it is…so once they do split the world titles again, each brand can have a world champion…and both world titles on an equal(or close to equal) level.

JR Texx (Jamie)

I prefer it as it is now, they should just keep it as the WWE WHC, and actually use the secondary titles better.

Padres4life

its very unfortunate how Bryan getting injured has killed his career…will anyone remember him when he gets back? will they still cheer loudly for him to succeed? Will his spot be there when he gets back? will he ever become champion again? I’m concerned about him, he’s my guy and one of the only reasons I watch because he is so good at what he does..He got me invested in a big way…I think that WM 30 might have been his peak and he’s done now…..what do you guys think? can he come back stronger than ever? or is that peak of his career over? will he be champion again?

Ben

I absolutely believe he will be a top guy when he comes back. He might not be as hot as he was with the Yes Movement, but that movement doesn’t get over in the first place if Bryan didn’t connect with the fans. My big concern for him is his injury and any long-lasting effects it may have. If that doesn’t stop him, then yes, I see him as a champ again. This is a lot of speculation but if Lesnar ends up getting the title, if Bryan comes back close to Wrestlemania season I’d be hard-pressed to pick someone else to beat Lesnar. He should be really hot upon his return and being thrust into the main event against a nuclear heat magnet like Heyman could help him keep that momentum for awhile.

GOR

Y do u think they keep bringing him back with 1 reason or another just like the kick-off show of MITB ?
They do want to keep him relavent

Truth

I hope he doesn’t get back to the top. He was boring and couldn’t cut a promo. When he comes back they should just give him he ic title, he isn’t good for main events.

Yves

I think that putting both titles are a bad idea, after Money in The Bank match, they should split the titles like in the past.

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